DRI official discharged

A DRI officer, facing trial for allegedly taking bribe from a businessman for bailing him out of an excise evasion case, has been discharged by a Delhi court for want of proper sanction for his prosecution.

Special CBI Judge Kanwaljeet Arora discharged Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) Y S Verma saying the sanction to prosecute him was "bad in the eyes of law" as it was given by an officer, junior to the one competent to grant it.

"On the basis of the facts pleaded in Verma's application and arguments advanced, it is admitted position that accused at the relevant point of time was working as senior intelligence officer with DRI, which is a Group B Post.

The corruption case against Verma was lodged by the CBI on complaint of Delhi-based exporter AK Aggarwal, who had alleged that Verma had lodged a false excise duty evasion case against him. He said Verma subsequently had demanded a bribe of R50 lakh from him to bail him out of the case.